Reconsidering the constitutionality of Civil Code section 3333.2 — the limit on noneconomic damages in healthcare professional negligence cases enacted as part of the 1975 Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) — seemed a possible Supreme Court agenda item after Justices Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar and Leondra Kruger took the bench in January.  Today, however, it appears the issue is not on the court’s to-do list.

Without recorded dissent (Justice Kathryn Werdegar was absent and did not participate), the court at its weekly conference denied review in Chan v. Curran, in which the First District, Division One, Court of Appeal had rejected a constitutional challenge, concluding that “the legitimate debate over the wisdom of MICRA’s noneconomic damages cap remains a matter for the Legislature and state electorate.”

In February, the court passed up another opportunity to reevaluate its 30-year-old precedent upholding the MICRA damage cap.  That action, and today’s, make it less likely than it once was that the court as presently constituted will ever revisit the issue.